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WILKES-BARRE - Winger Bobby Farnham knows the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have been less Rebecca Black and more Loverboy so far this season.

They're not all psyched up for "Friday," like Black was in her 2011 bubblegum pop hit. They're better at "Working for the Weekend," like Loverboy was in its arena-rock anthem 30 years earlier.

In an odd and somewhat curious statistical development, the Penguins are 7-6-1 on Fridays and 15-3-2 on Saturdays and Sundays this season.

Lately, the trend has become even more pronounced. In the last two months, the Penguins are 1-7 in their first game of a given week, then 11-1-2 thereafter.

"We keep trying to respond Saturday night and we do a good job of that, but it's more important we get a good start on Friday night," Farnham said.

Last weekend's three-game New England road trip was a perfect case in point.

On Friday, the Penguins fell behind 2-0 before the game was 15 minutes old and were routed 5-1 by Providence. They proceeded to smoke Portland 4-2 on Saturday and Providence 5-1 on Sunday.

"Friday night, we weren't moving our feet," coach John Hynes said. "We were second place everywhere. The puck battles, we didn't win a lot of them. It was just overall the intensity and tempo we played with. We played with more tempo and desire on Saturday and the same thing on Sunday."

The big question, of course, is why? Why does a team play to a .536 winning percentage on Friday and an .800 winning percentage the rest of the weekend?

It could just be a coincidence, a statistical anomaly caused by a small sample size. After all, the AHL season is only 16 weekends old.

Farnham has another theory. In the words of defenseman Philip Samuelsson, the coaching staff challenged the Penguins to avenge Friday's loss on Saturday and Sunday. That's not the first time such a challenge has been issued.

In a league where parity is strong and there's a fine line between winning and losing, perhaps that touch of tension in the air is what the Penguins need to sharpen their focus and gain a small advantage over their opponents.

"We definitely have to come out with that edge from the beginning of the week to the last minute on Sunday," Farnham said.

Hynes generally dismissed a couple other possible explanations for the phenomenon.

For example, maybe the Penguins have more intense practices than other teams all week and they're not as fresh when Friday rolls around.

Hynes shook his head.

"When you look at how hard our practices are or not, you'd look at our second and third games," Hynes said. "The first game of a week, you should be ready to go regardless of what happens during the week."

Maybe Hynes is a tactical mastermind who can make all the right adjustments overnight to turn a Friday loss into a Saturday win.

Hynes didn't buy that either. There's no time for major changes during a three-in-three weekend.

"You just touch on areas you want to fix and you're right back into the games," he said.

Whatever the reason, the stat presents an intriguing opportunity for the Penguins.

If they can better figure out the rhythms of the AHL schedule and perform consistently as well on Friday as they do the rest of the weekend, they could easily go from a team hanging around first place in the East Division to a team challenging for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

"I think it's a mindset for all of us in the dressing room," Farnham said. "I think we've addressed it. We know we have to be better Friday night coming off a week of practice. You can't get too comfortable. You need to come out and be ready to go."

Jeffrey on waivers

According to a report in the Montreal Journal, the Dallas Stars put former Penguins forward Dustin Jeffrey on waivers Wednesday.

If Jeffrey is not claimed by any other NHL team, Pittsburgh would have the option to re-claim him and assign him to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. If the Penguins pass, Dallas could send him to its AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars.

Jeffrey, 25, is fifth on the all-time Wilkes-Barre/Scranton scoring list with 154 points in 182 games from 2008-12.

He had no goals and one assist in 10 games with Pittsburgh before Dallas claimed him Nov. 17. He had no goals and one assist in 12 games with the Stars.

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